Deep sea starfish caught on camera but people are distracted by one thing

A deep sea starfish spotted on a livestream from the Schmidt Ocean Institute has left people in stitches. The odd detail on the sea creature had members of the public stunned, with many passing comment on the starfish. The latest footage from an expedition to the Underwater Oases of Mar Del Plata Canyon in Argentina, which was broadcast on the Schmidt Ocean livestream on YouTube, has since gone viral.

People from "all over the world" have gathered in the comments of the video upload to try and spot the starfish, which has been likened to a popular cartoon character. Joking comments compared the starfish to Patrick Star from the hit show SpongeBob SquarePants after an uncanny likeness was spotted on camera.

The deep dive from ROV SuBastian's Dive saw the Schmidt Ocean team traverse the wall of a moat. During their excursion, they came across a starfish with a cheeky outline which many seemed to think was a sighting of the cartoon character.

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One user commented: "I love that people from all over the world are here to see Patrick." Another user has since tagged the time you can see Star, with a user sharing it was four hours, one minute, and 38 seconds into the footage.

People were left thrilled by the appearance of the starfish, with many commenting on its apparent similarity to the Nickelodeon character.

One joked: "Patrick's lost his pants!" Another added: "It's big-bottomed Patrick." Patrick's cameo appearance on the near eight-hour livestream comes as the Schmidt Ocean team were working on "previously mapped featured" of the ocean.

A description for the livestream reads: "Welcome to ROV SuBastian's Dive 811. We are traversing up the western wall of a moat. We are starting at a presumed area of coral mounds, and working our way up previously mapped features.

"We are conducting exploration of topography that was of interest from our EM124 sonar system on board Falkor (too)."

The non profit organisation has since offered an introduction to their new social media followers, with their Facebook account providing a statement which shared the surprise increase in traffic.

It reads: "We send a warm welcome to all our new followers who have found us on the Mar Del Plata Canyon expedition, led by Dr. Daniel Lauretta of CONICET.

"A quick introduction that comes a little late, as we have been watching the divestreams, too! The data collected by the team will establish a strong foundation for future research, conservation, and resource management. We are happy you joined us!"

A series of posts made by the account on X are also going viral, with their deep sea diving footage capturing squids in Argentina as their science team continues exploring.

Schmidt Ocean are carrying out their first expedition in Argentinian waters this year, with the non profit confirming they had embarked on July 24.